A friendly reader just sent me a link to this very passionate video from IMBConnecting. It hints at a forthcoming event on June 15 (next week), “Live from Phoenix.” I am assuming this is going to be a major push by the IMB to get its churches (“every man and woman”) involved in missions to the unreached. The new president, Tom Elliff, believes “each of the remaining 3,800 unengaged, unreached people groups” need to be “embraced” by a Southern Baptist church that will commit to seeing that people group engaged with the Gospel.
I will be watching this event rather closely (well, as closely as I can given that I will be on family vacation that week). I admire the passion and energy of the International Mission Board and the Convention, which of course has a long history of involvement in missions and is one of the largest mission agencies in the world.
On the other hand I want to be very discerning about the overall motivation of this charge and how it will impact their perspective on cooperation and collaboration with others. Is this a challenge for Southern Baptist Churches to join other agencies and churches around the world and commit to finishing the task, becoming family along the way—or will it go too far into “we can do it ourselves, with or without the rest of you”? In the past it must be admitted that the SBC has been susceptible to the latter.
I pray and trust it will not go too far, but some of the comments made in this particular article about “aggressively facilitating younger generations of pastors” and offering them compelling evidence about “choosing to be Southern Baptist” are some yellow flags to me. If you want to share thoughts or perspectives you can comment below; if you would prefer to do so privately you can email me at justinlong@gmail.com.
Update: I have received a number of interesting responses on this issue, and while I still have some cautions, the trend now seems to me to be leaning in favor of popular motivation and away from the idea of doing it on our own. I’m writing a more comprehensive analysis that I hope to publish later today.
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